Stringcat3 50-Book Challenge 2025

1. The Valencourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories Volume 5

Above average collection.

2. The Bishop of Hell and Other Stories - Marjorie Bowen

A few good ones but overall pretty average

2. The Painted Veil - W. Somerset Maugham

Brilliant.

3. The Crimson Blind & Other Stories - H.D. Everett

Middling collection.

4. An Unsuitable Attachment - Barbara Pym

5. So Long, See You Tomorrow - William Maxwell. Meh short story material dragged out for 135 pages.

6. Jane and Prudence - Barbara Pym

7. Haunted Tales: Ghostly Tales for the Darkest Nights - Adam Macqueen

Several very disturbing stories here, but many are not ghost stores per se.

8. Bilgewater - James Gardam

Not up to her best, e.g., Old Filth, but engaging nonetheless.

9. The Fortnight in September - R. C. Sheriff

Charming novel of an English family of modest means taking their annual seaside holiday.

10. The Doctor's Wife - Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Overly long, in the typical 19th-century fashion, take on a novel-reading airhead who can't even manage to commit adultery properly. Surprise twist at end takes it out of Madame Bovary territory. Well-drawn characters but not much of a plot.

11. What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food that Tells Their Stories - Laura Shapiro

The chapters on Barbara Pym and Eleanor Roosevelt are the strongest. The Eva Braun chapter is the weakest, as it's mainly about Hitler's food habits. Helen Gurley Brown: just sad that she had such a screwed up relationship with food. Dorothy Wordsworth likewise had not much going on.

12. Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss

Excellent writing, a bit overlong for the plot.

13. The Buddha in the Attic - Julie Otsuka. Brilliant, wrenching novel of the Japanese experience in the US between the world wars.

14. The Beast with Five Fingers - W.F. Harvey

Above-average collection of supernatural, weird, and mystery stories.

15. The Custom of the Country - Edith Wharton

Liked it as much as, if not more than, The House of Mirth. At least Undine wasn't such a wuss as Lily Bart was.

16. A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon

Very funny, nutty book.

17. An Eye in the Door - Pat Barker

Second volume of the Regeneration trilogy, and more interesting than the first, especially as the tiresome Siegfried Sassoon is absent for nearly all of it.

18. Heat and Dust - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Ultimately disappointing. The story fizzled out. The most interesting part, the aftermath of the flight of the adulterous pair, is given short shrift. And the narrator's arc feels incomplete. Meh.

19. The Postman Always Rings Twice - James M. Cain

Better than I thought it would be.

20. The Twelve Strange Days of Christmas - Syd Moore

Okay collection of stories, some interconnected.

21. My Grandmothers and I - Diana Holman-Hunt

Amusing memoir of an odd childhood bouncing between two eccentric grandmothers.

22. Mustard: A Global History - Demet Güzey

Surprisingly engaging monograph on mustard, with excellent illustrations and photos.

23. New Castle Revisited - Michael Connolly

Images of America, with text by the director of the New Castle Historical Society.

24. Read House and Gardens: One Site, Many Stories - Michele Anstine

25. The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan

Complete predictable from the first paragraph.

26. The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings - Dan Jones

Quite disappointing

27 Night Shivers - J.H. (Charlotte) Riddell

A good collection, although Riddell does get wordy.

28. Margaret the First - Margaret Brown Klapthor

Disappointing.

29. Bonjour, Tristesse - Francoise Sagan

Why is this considered a comic novel? Amoral narcissists destroy a life. Bah.

30. The Custom of the Country - Edith Wharton

The counterpoint to The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence. Liked it as much if not more.

31. Pedro Páramo - Juan Rulfo

An odd, often frustrating book but strangely engaging. It is a modernist ghost story, or perhaps a study in schizophrenia.

32. The Gods of Gotham - Lyndsay Faye

Somewhat overlong, with an unconvincing love attachment (occasionally squirm-inducing in its inanity). The mystery wusses out, leaving the reader frustrated after wading through.

33. Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead - Barbara Comyns

Not as hilarious as the critics would have you believe. I rather struggled to get into it, and then sold it when I was through. The flood episode at the beginning is ridiculous - three feet of water in the house and they just drag the carpets into the sun, polish the furniture, and that makes it all better.

34. Standing Her Ground: Classic Short Stories by Trailblazing Women - Harriet Sanders, editor

Decent collection.

35. The Book Shop: A History of the American Bookstore - Evan Friss

36. Wieland, or, The Transformation - Charles Brockden Brown

37. The Diary of a Provincial Lady - E.M. Delafield

38. Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner

Not quite as wonderful as I'd heard. Very 80s in tone. But good ending.

39. Mustard: A Global History - Demet Güzey

Surprisingly engaging account of mustard in its many forms.

40. The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch

41. The Diary of a Provincial Lady - E.M. Delafield
42. The Provincial Lady Goes Further - E.M. Delafield

43. The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch

Overlong but amusing enough. Doesn't make me want to read more of her books, though.

44. Men at Arms - Terry Pratchett

As usual, Sir Terry is as relevant as ever. Gun control, racism, misogyny, oligarchical rule - funny AF.

45. Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History - Adam Nicolson

46. The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories Volume 3 - Simon Stern, editor

47. The Bell in the Fog - Gertrude Atherton

Disappointing collection.

48. The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim

A bit twee for my taste. Goes under "The Movie Was Better".

49. 24 Hours in the Viking World: A Day in the Life of the People Who Lived There - Kirsten Wolf

Engaging and of interest throughout.

50. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell

Gorgeous, wrenching book.